Author's note

Ok I've been keeping pace so far, but tomorrow I'm gonna be visiting some friends to say goodbye before I take off. So I won't guarantee a new chapter, but I might send one out. It's 50/50.

Anyway on with the story.


The Greyhound Part 3: War of the Mind

Chapter 25

The next morning had come, and Makarov had readied himself to deal with Phantom Lord. Destroying a building he could overlook, mocking their values he could ignore, but Jose couldn't just leave it there.

No, he decided to lay a hand on his children. He would pay for that mistake.

And so he stood with all his mages. His family, all of whom desired vengeance as strongly as he did. Phantom Lord was in sight, Phantom Lord would pay.


Cana was woken up, far earlier than she wanted to be, by an angry Erza storming through the halls of Fairy Hills. And dragging herself out of bed she went to see what all the commotion was about.

When everything was explained her blood ran cold. One of Phantom Lord's goons had struck last night. Jet, Droy, and Levy were all found heavily wounded. The redhead also informed her of the counterattack Master intended to launch effective immediately.

Nothing more needed to be said, of course, she was going.

That was this morning though, now she stood among her fellow Fairies poised for action. And with powerhouses like Erza to her left, and Natsu taking the lead, she had all the confidence she needed.

Though one thing was bothering her, or rather the absence of one person. She looked for him while they marched but hadn't been able to find the boy. So she resigned herself to ask the redhead next to her.

"Hey Erza, I've been looking around but can't find Kinzo. Do you know where he is?" She was more than confident in the people around her, but even Master seemed to acknowledge that guy's abilities. Not to mention how much he'd helped her out in the last couple of days.

The knight stiffened slightly as the question hit her ears "He will not be assisting us today." The girl answered as if she were on autopilot.

That struck Cana as odd. Erza's words lacked their usual confidence. And besides that, why wouldn't Kinzo help them?

"What, why wouldn't he be here?"

Erza just looked at her feet as they continued on, growing closer and closer to their enemy. "He isn't part of our guild, so why would he feel the need to partake in our battles?"

"… well I mean, I guess that's true." Even so, the whole thing seemed weird to her, not to mention Erza seemed to be tip-toeing around the situation in general.

"... Did something happen?" she probed, just trying to dig around a little bit.

"Cana, I think it would be best if you focused on the upcoming attack." The armored mage said, effectively ending the conversation.

"I'm guessing that's a yes" she thought but kept it to herself.

Though the girl's words rang true when Phantom's guildhall came into view. Natsu decided to let them know we were here...


It was cold, so cold. Every breath left a trail of mist in the air, showing the true difference in temperature between his body and the area around him.

It was freezing but he didn't mind. He much preferred the snow to fire, and the sound of strong wind over total silence.

It had been like this all night, everything was so different, and it was all because of her.

Standing tall was the woman he most wanted to see, Ur.

It was just a dream, just like last time, he knew that. Even so, every part of him wanted to act like she was real.

"Welcome back kid." she said with a smile.

"I know the center of a storm isn't exactly the best place for a conversation." she gestured to the blizzard surrounding them "But with how torn up your mind is, this was the best I could manage while keeping the darker thoughts at bay."

Oh, there were so many other things he wanted to ask this 'Ur' his head had come up with, but he knew this wouldn't last. This dream would turn into a nightmare, same as always.

"You're the one who changed the scenery?" he asked.

"Yup. I figured you would prefer this over… what I saw the last time we met." And she was definitely right.

"I didn't realize you could do something like that."

"Well, I've had plenty of practice at keeping things locked away. After all I handled Deliora for over half a decade. Thanks for cleaning up after me by the way, it was very satisfying to see that thing finally die." She seemed rather cheerful.

He just dropped his head "... -an e st p the sm l t lk." he mumbled.

"Sorry, what was that?" she asked in confusion.

"Can we please just stop with the small talk?" he said with more force.

She didn't respond, just watched him with concern.

"When does the nightmare start? Why are we dragging this out?" The more she spoke the more guilty he felt. They'd only just started speaking and already he couldn't handle it.

Something seemed to register in Ur's eyes "Kinzo, what do you think I am?"

That threw him for a loop. The characters in his dreams never asked him meaningful questions like that, only pointed ones he already knew the answers to. Yet here he was being questioned by a figment of his imagination.

"If I had to guess I would say you're some recreation of Ur my subconscious put together to give me some form of comfort and try to steer me away from my current lifestyle because I feel guilty." He didn't sugarcoat it, why bother. Being blunt was one of his virtues I suppose.

"I can only assume you're just now showing up because of my little run-in with Lyon and Ultear in particular who brought up a lot of old memories. Ultear especially complicates things because of how much I know about her from you, and how close she is with Grimoire."

"The dream from last night was probably meant as a representation for how damaged and dangerous my current situation is. And my mind likely chose you, Ur Milkovich, as the person to 'save' me because of my emotional reaction to your recent death, close relation to Ultear, and my respect for you as a teacher."

The woman just listened but cringed slightly every time he brought up the youngest Milkovich.

"Heh, you know, you might be the first person I've ever met who is so comfortable with psychologically profiling themselves like that."

Silence fell between them again, wind from the storm tossing their hair and clothing back and forth.

"I told you yesterday, I'm not part of your dream kid. But something tells me you won't believe me even if I say it again."

She was right.

"I have no reason to believe you, and what would the alternative even be? If you aren't just part of my mind, if you really are the woman I knew, how did you get here?"

None of it made sense, and unless she had a decent explanation how was he supposed to believe this was real?

"Well, I'm not sure actually," she said somewhat bashfully.

"I know that my consciousness is currently being held in that necklace you're wearing, but as for how I'm in your dreams… couldn't tell you."

He wasn't impressed. "Is that really the best backstory my mind could come up with?"

"Hey listen here, I'm just as confused about all this as you are!" She said shortly, not liking how much he doubted her words.

"Well, at least I got your personality right." Her short temper was something he would often poke fun at when they were together.

"... Haah, whatever. Look if you wanna see me as a part of your subconscious then that's fine by me. As long as you let me help you."

"Help me? And what exactly do I need help with?" He asked defensively.

"Kid, let's not play this game. I think we both know how damaged you are." He didn't respond well to that.

"And how would you know anything about that? What, you see one nightmare and suddenly think you have me all figured out?" He was getting tired of people just assuming he was broken.

"I didn't just see the nightmare."

That gave him pause.

"I don't fully understand how all this works," she said, gesturing to the mindscape around them.

"But since I've been here I've been able to see certain… memories."

He froze and just stayed silent.

"I've worked through a fair bit of it, but it's still 19 years' worth of memory. I've been focusing on the last 6 years, ever since you went to be with your mother…"

That had been a hard thing to see. Watching Victoria die, and knowing he'd seen it. It killed her inside when she saw his recollection. And then watching the way he dragged himself to her cabin, only to find it empty. It was painful to know that he'd cried out for her, but she wasn't there.

God if only she'd been there. Then her boys, all three of them, might still be okay.

Gray never would have experienced the guilt that came with her death. Lyon never would have walked down the path he did if she hadn't left him. And Kinzo, she hardly recognized the boy. She couldn't help but think that he wouldn't be this damaged if only she'd been there when he begged for her.

"I'm sorry Kinzo, I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me."

His body and mind locked up. Unsure what to feel, or how to react to his mother's death and his own sense of abandonment being brought up.

"Why are you apologizing? What were you supposed to do? You were dead."

"It doesn't matter, you were still alone. I told you to come to me if you ever needed anything, and I wasn't there when you needed me most."

His response was automatic.

"You can't hold yourself responsible for that Ur. You did what you were supposed to, which was keeping Gray and Lyon safe."

"I was supposed to keep you safe too, you know."

He shouldn't have been surprised by her words. Of course she would say that, because she was a genuinely good person. Even in death her desire was to help him. At least his mind got that part right.

"Haaah. So, let's assume for a second that I did believe you. That you really are Ur, and you're trying to help me. What would you have me do?"

A soft smile graced her lips. It looks like he might be willing to listen after all.

"You've done a lot of things I don't approve of kid. And based on the way you torment yourself in here, I'd say you don't approve of your behavior either. Fixing that comes first.

"I'm not going to stop hunting Grimoire." His tone was flat and final. He would wiggle on some things, but on that he wouldn't budge.

"I'm not trying to convince you to stop… yet. What I want you to see is the humanity behind people. I want you to see innocent people as valuable even if you don't know them."

He had a response to that one. "I already do, why else would I have nightmares about hurting them?" That should have been obvious.

"No. You feel guilt for hurting people who didn't deserve it. That's not the same thing as valuing their safety. The way you look at people is too neutral. The way you see things, if you hurt them it's bad, but if someone else hurts them it's not your problem."

"So what, if someone else is incompetent it's my responsibility to stop them from getting hurt?" He couldn't protect everyone, and he had no desire to.

"No, it's your responsibility to help them if you can." came her retort.

"... I already do that. I did that last night with those 3 idiots who got themselves crucified. I stepped in and stopped that Phantom Lord prick from going any further."

She just stared at him. "Kinzo the only reason you helped them was because you knew Fairy Tail's guild master would be furious if you did nothing. You helped them because you had something to gain."

"What I want is for you to value people, just because they're people. Not because they have something to offer you."

And there it was, Ur's blind optimism. As much as he loved her, she was still a fool when it came to this.

"That sounds childish. It's a waste of time and resources, especially if they have nothing to offer."

"Did he really just say that?" Ur was genuinely surprised by the boy's lack of understanding. How could he not see that he had already benefited from others when he had nothing to offer at the time?

"And what did I stand to gain by taking you in? You, Gray, or Lyon? I didn't 'gain' anything by training you. It was actually more expensive to raise you, than to reject you."

"Suddenly I had 4 mouths to feed instead of 1."

"4 people to train instead of 1."

"4 people to worry about instead of just 1."

"Kinzo it would have been so much easier to just take care of myself and ignore everyone else. But I don't regret taking you in, and I wouldn't trade those years for anything."

He paused for a moment mulling over her words, seeing his own flawed thinking. He had a double standard when it came to himself. He expected other people to help him when he needed it but wouldn't offer the same assistance unless they made it worth his while.

Part of him resisted what Ur was saying. His own ego telling him he deserved it when other people helped him free of charge, and that he didn't owe them anything. But why? Why was he convinced he deserved it?

Thoughts came to mind.

"You're special."

"You're hunting Hades, these people should feel honored to be able to help you."

"You're better than them."

"If these idiots wanna help you free of charge that's their problem."

The thoughts were convenient, they told him he was right. But there was just one problem, he knew those thoughts were wrong. Looking at Ur was all he needed to see that. He wasn't better than her, and any thought that tried to claim Ur was somehow beneath him was obviously a thought not worth entertaining.

But what then? What was his justification for not caring about the normal people around him with little to offer? He didn't have one, and that realization was what finally convinced him to play along.

"So what do you want me to do, specifically?"

She smiled, glad that he seemed to get it now. She was worried about bringing up the fact that taking him in as a child was harder than just rejecting him. She remembered the things he'd said about himself the last time he'd dreamed. The insecurity and pain in his voice while he asked why she wouldn't call him a monster or a worthless student. But the gamble had paid off, and now he was willing to listen.

"Go get to know those three people you helped last night."

That should be an easy enough starting point. Slowly she would teach him to care about people, in a way that his mother likely never did. And she would try to undo years of learned selfish thinking that inevitably sprouted up while he was forced to survive on his own.

"Fine." he said back with a hint of irritation at the chore she gave him.

The two just kept staring at each other, before the younger's expression softened.

"Even if I do this you know it won't fix everything, right? My issues run a lot deeper than that."

"Obviously, and I'll still be here when you get back." She was here for the long haul. Not like she knew how to leave anyway.

"I still think that you're a figment of my imagination, but on the off chance that you are real. It's good to see you Ur. I missed you, all of us did."

As the snow-covered landscape began to fade out of existence the last thing he saw was her ever-present smile.


He snapped awake. Quickly registering the tarp underneath him and the sound of soft waves brushing against the beach to his right.

Rising to his feet, and stretching out his all too knotted back, he let his mind wander. His most recent dream, it felt so real… And of course Ur was there, trying to play mother and correct his behavior like always.

Did he miss her that much? I mean obviously, he missed her, but he didn't think he was in denial about her death. He knew she was gone and yet here he was building this little world in his head where he could talk with her.

Well whatever, even if it was just a dream, he told her he would try to start looking out for people. Even if they had nothing to offer him. He wouldn't promise any results, but he would at least try. For her sake.


Making his way to the guild took longer than it should have, mainly because he was dragging his feet. He could deal with going and making small talk with the three fools he'd saved. But he had no desire whatsoever to see anyone from team Natsu.

As he approached the broken doors of the shattered guildhall, reality struck him. He very rarely, if ever, got what he wanted.

Pushing past the cracked wood entrance, he found the guildhall to be… completely empty. There were 5 magic signatures total in the building hidden behind closed doors, but as for the large common area, not a soul.

As for the 5. One was off by themselves in the back, likely whoever was responsible for keeping the guild running for the day, and the other 4 were in what he recognized to be the infirmary.

That was likely where they were, so that was where he wen-

"What do you think you're doing?" the sound of a familiar voice drew his attention.

Mirajane was there, watching him like a hawk after exiting the back room.

"It's none of your concern." he told her before starting to move again.

She moved far faster than he expected her to, especially since she didn't use any magic. "Except it is since it involves my guildmates."

She was gripping his sleeve in defiance, trying to halt his movements. It would have been so easy for him to sweep her feet out and just let her fall, but he restrained himself.

"What is your problem with me? You should already know it wasn't my doing last night, and I have no reason to hurt them. Why should it matter if I want to speak with them?"

Mira's eyes… didn't quite soften, but they did lose some of their anger.

"Look, I'm sorry for accusing you prematurely but that doesn't mean I want you hanging around my guildmates especially while they're trying to heal."

So far he'd done a good job of keeping his voice level and trying not to escalate the situation, but the barmaid was really testing his patience. If she wanted to play rough, he could play too.

"I don't really car-"

The door to the infirmary propped open, and a head of blonde hair popped out. It was Lucy, looking very uncomfortable at their passive-aggressive conversation. "Hey guys, you know we can hear you right?"

The two just stared back at her, not saying anything. And she sighed in uncertainty. "Listen I need to run out and pick up a few things, but Levy says she's fine with talking to Kinzo if that's what he's here for."

The spirit mage pushed the door open further revealing the blue-haired girl he saw strung up the night before. She was covered in bandages but still smiling as she held up a hand in greeting.

That was all the permission he needed. Brushing off Mira's grasp he marched toward the room. Trading places with the blonde and moving to sit closer to the petite girl resting on the bed.

The white-haired model wasn't happy with the development, but let it happen since Levy gave it the okay. Lucy offered a quick goodbye to the barista, which was promptly ignored as she just stomped back into the kitchen.

"Okay then." Lucy said while walking through the guild doors toward a local store.


"Hello there." Levy offered in an awkward manner. The two had just been sitting there looking at each other for over a minute and she wasn't sure where to go from here.

"Hi" he offered back, just as uncertainly.

"... So what did you want to talk about?" She asked him genuinely curious. She'd noticed this Kinzo character a few days ago when he first showed up at the guild but never made the move to introduce herself. He seemed like the kind of person who liked to be left to himself, she could relate to that.

He sighed at her question, running a hand through his hair. How was he supposed to go about explaining the situation to her?

"Hey, a mental image of my dead teacher told me to come talk to you because she's worried I don't care about other people," just didn't seem like an appropriate response.

"Listen, I don't really know how to ask this… but could you… tell me about yourself?"

"You mean, like just, generally?" she questioned.

"Ya," he said back, clearly out of his element.

"Heh..." a chuckle escaped her lips.

"Heh, heheheh, hahaha!" she laughed almost uncontrollably. "Is that all you're here for? You had me really nervous there for a second." she revealed while wiping a tear from her eye.

He shifted around uncomfortably, not sure how to respond to being laughed at by the girl covered in bandages.

Eventually, she brought her laughter under control and looked at him in a somewhat serious manner.

"Lucy said you were the one to find us, and even fought off that Phantom Lord guy right?"

"Ya." He said shortly.

"Then for you, I might be willing to make a trade." She beamed. "I'll tell you anything you wanna know about me as long as you tell me a bit about you in return."

He watched her movements. Facial expressions, nervous ticks, even the way her eyes tracked things throughout the room, trying to catalog her tendencies to see what her aim was. But despite what he'd gathered, he didn't see any nefarious intentions behind her request.

"Alright, I think I can live with that."

"Great! Then to start my name is Levy McGarden, and I've been a part of Fairy Tail for..."


"… Since then I've just been spending time with my team. Doing jobs, and trying to read as many books as I can get my hands on." Levy explained.

Kinzo just sat in silence. He'd been listening to the girl talk for a little over an hour, and he had to admit, he found her somewhat interesting despite being a bookworm. Hearing about how she'd come to this guild with Jet and Droy as children, and how Makarov had taken them in without a second thought.

The magic she chose to learn Solid Script had caught his attention almost immediately, especially considering his father knew an offshoot of that same magic called Kanji Script. Her stories, all things considered, were bland. And in terms of her usefulness in combat or espionage, she was limited. But even so he found himself drawn in. Just listening to her life story and seeing how it diverged from his own. It was… nice, to listen to someone else's perspective on the world.

Especially when they were just telling you about it instead of trying to cram it down your throat.

But all that being said he still didn't think Ur's words were true. He didn't disagree that he should care about people, or at the very least he shouldn't turn a blind eye to their suffering. But he didn't have time to be sitting here listening to stories, not while he was fighting a war. This was the kind of thing he might let himself do when everything was over, once Hades was dead.

He could come and listen to other people's stories for a while before going to be with his mother. But that was something to do after his job was done. He didn't have time to be playing house and swapping anecdotes with the people here, as enjoyable as this was, it wouldn't help him when the Devil came knocking.

He'd done as the image of Ur had asked him, he'd gotten to know someone he didn't see as a valuable asset, and he enjoyed doing it. But that didn't mean he would start going out of his way for people. If someone in front of him needed help, sure he would offer it. But he wasn't gonna risk losing to Hades by wasting his time making friends or trying to make the world a better place by helping other people.

He would make the world a better place by killing the demon, and then after that people could just keep watching out for themselves.

The silence continued between them until a soft tapping against the window drew his attention.

"That's strange, I didn't think it was supposed to rain today," Levy commented.

Kinzo was up and heading for the door before she'd finished talking. "It wasn't."

Something was very wrong.


Phantom Lord's guildhall was relatively peaceful. The mages inside enjoying another normal day, while boasting to one another about their most recent accomplishments.

"Haha Gajeel you really did those Fairies dirty this time, stringing up three of their members like that!" came a holler.

The man in question just ignored him. Redfox was too busy with his own thoughts about the previous night to bother entertaining his guildmates. They saw yesterday as a victory, he saw it as a problem.

He was expecting this to be a simple smackdown on Fairy Tail, but if the crazy bastard from last night was anything to go by this fight would be much harder than he was expecting.

Snapping his head up, he looked toward the entrance.

His senses told him something was about to happen, his senses were right.

Wood and debris flew through the air as a flame-covered fist rocked the building's side. The sight before him was terrifying and awe-inspiring. It was like the monsters of old had descended upon his guild.

Dragons, Ice-men, Beasts, and Magic Knights. Creatures of legend, all led by a Giant in human form.

"BE READY PHANTOM! FAIRY TAIL'S COME KNOCKING!"


Author's note.

Ok, another one down. I am currently working on chapter 28 so I have plenty more to post. I just gotta make sure I'm able to finish the arc in time. Hope you enjoyed it, and the Next Chapter will have plenty of action again... the next couple actually.


Magic

1) Metal-Make Magic like ice make... but with metal

2) Speed Magic (Potential energy magic- p.s. I made this up so you won't find it on a wiki... I think.) so any time you see Conversion Leap (speed boost) or Kinetic Decay (stealing something else's speed and trapping it in place)

3) Telekinesis lifting things with one's mind etc.

4) Re-Quip no armor just items/weapons

Tools

1) His Revolver- Iron Maiden (two types of ammo revealed. Puncture rounds and Flashbang rounds)

2) The rings his mother gave him - can be molded into other objects and when spun together replay a recorded message.

3) The magic absorbing metal - He can choose to make his weapons out of this or other kinds of normal metal (iron, steel, etc.)

4) The Eye of Talionis - replacing his right eye, it allows the user to see magic (Ethernano)

5) Isacc Colt's journals - three journals belonging to his father

6) metal woven into his hair - this will not play a major role for most of the story but I may as well mention it so people don't forget.